UWA, Fremantle back home to meet in Western Derby 2

BOTH the UWA Torpedoes and Fremantle teams in the OVO Australian Water Polo League spent Round 3 of the 2018 season with six games in six days in NSW leading into this Friday’s second Western Derby of the campaign at UWA Aquatic Centre.

The Torpedoes and Fremantle Marlins and Mariners did battle to open the 2018 AWL season at Bicton Pool with both home teams winning on that occasion.

That all led into the two West Australian teams hitting the road last week to head to NSW for six games across the six days both in Newcastle and Sydney.

The Fremantle Marlins began their tour with a one-goal loss to the UTS Balmain Tigers before losing to the UNSW Wests Killer Whales by five and one respectively over the following two nights.

They got on the board beating the Tigers 7-6 on Friday before heading to Newcastle and winning 7-3 over the Hunter Hurricanes on Saturday and then drawing 11-11 on Sunday.

Two wins and a draw from the six games for the Marlins leaves them in fourth position on the AWL standings after three rounds.

Meanwhile for the Torpedoes women, they began impressively on Tuesday in Newcastle beating the Hurricanes 10-7. They then played out a 10-10 draw also with Hunter on Wednesday with the two teams unable to be separated after the penalty shootout.

The Torpedoes then went to Sydney where they lost to the Balmain Tigers by three and two goals respectively, and one and two against the Killer Whales.

The Torpedoes women returned with a win and a draw from the six games but the average losing margin of two goals was a stark improvement when they lost every game on the trip in 2017 by an average of over 10 goals.

Turning attention to the men’s AWL action, the Fremantle Mariners started off beating Balmain 12-8 before also defeating UNSW Wests Magpies 13-8 and 10-7 the next two nights. Their winning run continued with a 12-5 win over the Tigers.

The undefeated run to start 2018 of the Mariners was ended on Saturday with the Hurricanes winning 9-6 before Fremantle bounced back to win 10-9 on Sunday.

For the Mariners to win five of the six games across the six days was a tremendous achievement as they look for a second win against UWA now on Friday night.

It wasn’t quite as successful a road trip for the Torpedoes starting Tuesday and Wednesday in Newcastle with the Hurricanes winning 8-5 and 12-2.

The Torpedoes then headed to Sydney and UWA got its first win of 2018 on the board on Thursday defeating the UTS Balmain Tigers 10-9. Their trip finishes with losses by three goals to the UNSW Wests Magpies, by one to the Balmain Tigers and three to the Magpies.

Going one of six from the trip and to be 1-6 so far this season under new coach Florian Naroska wasn’t quite the start the Torpedoes were hoping for.

Now with those trips out of the way, UWA and Fremantle turn their focus on a second Western Derby for 2018 this Friday night at UWA Aquatic Centre.

The women’s clash begins at 7pm with the men’s to follow from 8.30pm while it will also be live streams through OVO Play.

Torpedoes women’s coach Scott Schweickle is looking forward to the challenge for his team to improve on what they did in Round 1 with the additions of Dayna O’Leary and Jakie Kohli even though the Marlins regain Zoe Arancini.

“They have had a bit of player change with their development cycle and so have we I suppose. The energy coming out of our group at the moment is really positive. They are itching to get at them and we’ll just have to wait and see how it all pans out on Friday,” Schweickle said.

“We are so looking forward to this first home game but that won’t be easy against Fremantle again. Especially with the addition of Zoe Arancini to their team which we believe is going to be the case. She is a quality player obviously so it will make it interesting as to see where we are after our six games compared to them.”

Mariners coach Laurie Trettel is expecting a stern test to come from the Torpedoes in the men’s contest but his team are feeling good given their start to the season.

“We are aware that it is the Torpedoes first home game and it is also the OVO Play live stream match, we are certainly entering enemy territory,” Trettel said.

“The Torpedoes are going to be ready because every derby is extremely high energy, almost like a final. It’s always a grudge match, there is a deep mutual respect, but the rivalry is pretty great.

“The boys are in high spirits after we achieved the goal, we would have loved to have won all our matches but it wasn’t to be. Our goal is to be in the top two at the end of the season, so it is important for us to win matches like this one.”

UWA men’s coach Florian Naroska hasn’t had the start to his coaching career he would have liked the Germany Olympian knows the key to improvement is the Torpedoes finding a way to score more goals.

“I am happy with our defence but I know we have to improve on our attack,” Naroska said.

“It’s always an advantage to be at home, especially in the evening because you know the pool, the surroundings, the lighting, all the small things.

“Both teams know each other very well and we know what to expect from them and have to trust our systems to get the job done.”